Laurie's review
Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
I think this book just completely changed my life. I read it cover-to-cover while flying from the Midwest to Florida and I couldn't put it down. Some of the screenwriting books I've seen seem to be a whole lot of talk and not much substance; this one is LOADED with substance.
One thing that may be a turn off for some is that, like every other screenwriting book I've seen so far, the book is unabashedly focused on crass commercialism. For example, there's an unnecessary few paragraphs in which Snyder goes off on Memento suggesting that it's a bad movie and using as evidence the fact that it didn't make a lot of money. Hmmm. But as Snyder says himself on page 42:
"True originality can't begin until you know what you're breaking away from."
How true.
One thing that may be a turn off for some is that, like every other screenwriting book I've seen so far, the book is unabashedly focused on crass commercialism. For example, there's an unnecessary few paragraphs in which Snyder goes off on Memento suggesting that it's a bad movie and using as evidence the fact that it didn't make a lot of money. Hmmm. But as Snyder says himself on page 42:
"True originality can't begin until you know what you're breaking away from."
How true.
